A combined six players between the sides were in Phoenix this week for the U.S.’s 2-2 friendly draw against Mexico, with five – RSL’s Kyle Beckerman, Tony Beltran and Nick Rimando and Sporting’s Matt Besler and Graham Zusi – starting for the USMNT on Wednesday night. Rimando and Besler both wen the full 90 for Jurgen Klinsmann’s squad, while Beltran, Beckerman and Zusi all came out in the second half. RSL midfielder Luis Gil was also in Phoenix, but did not feature against Mexico. All six of the players will have only one training session with their respective club sides prior to Saturday’s contest. How RSL Head Coach Jeff Cassar and his SKC counterpart Peter Vermes handle their international charges on Saturday will likely play a big role in the match – we’ll see who starts and who sits.

RSL is currently unbeaten in the Jeff Cassar era, taking two wins and two draws from matches at LA, at San Jose, home to LA and home to Toronto. The Claret-and-Cobalt is just one of just four unbeaten teams left in MLS. They’ll have their work cut out for them if they’re to keep that unblemished record intact on Saturday. Make sure you tune-in on ABC 4.

Michael Bradley has been getting a lot of praise for his performance in the U.S.’s 2-2 draw against Mexico last night. Deservedly so, too. The Toronto FC man was excellent, scoring the Americans’ opener, brilliantly heading RSL defender Tony Beltran’s cross into the path of Chris Wondolowski for an assist on the U.S.’s second, distributing wonderfully and turning in a solid defensive shift at the top of Jurgen Klinsmann’s midfield diamond.

Bradley was freed up on Wednesday, and it paid off. Instead of spending 90 minutes providing cover in front of the backline, he was free to roam where he pleased, pulling attacking strings all over the pitch. He put in defensive work when necessary, but mainly served as a creator, with the entire U.S. attack running through him.

The man behind Bradley in the U.S.’s midfield diamond on Wednesday? That’d be RSL Captain Kyle Beckerman, whose positional discipline, rock-solid distribution and defensive ability allowed Bradley to get up the field with aplomb. The Beckerman-Bradley partnership flourished against El Tri; the two had an obvious chemistry, a solid understanding of each other and played well into each other’s strengths.

In short, it was everything that the Bradley’s partnership with Jermaine Jones – Klinsmann’s usual first-choice midfield tandem – usually isn’t. Bradley seemed to notice just that, hinting at it in his postgame comments on Wednesday night.

“I didn’t necessarily look at it so differently than normal other than now you’re playing with a guy in Kyle who does a good job of being disciplined and taking care of things in front of the defenders,” Bradley said. “It means that I’m able to have a little more freedom, have the ability to be a little more two-way and be more up-and-down. It’s certainly something I enjoy.”

Kyle clearly enjoyed himself too, completing 39 of 42 passes before coming off in the 72nd minute.

“I thought we got a lot joy from it. That first half was a lot of fun,” Beckerman said. “[Bradley] can just be effective in more dangerous areas. For all of us, really, there was a lot of space and attacking options once we got the ball.”

Now, the big question: Will we see the Bradley-Beckerman partnership this summer in Brazil? And could Klinsmann give Kyle a start (or two, or three), or will he stick with the familiar – if less dynamic – central midfield duo of Bradley and Jermaine Jones? We don't know, but we do know we're not the only ones who want to see KB5 out there come June.

Quick, someone make a mixtape of Kyle Beckerman's passing. Upload it to YouTube with a Euro trance track and send it to Jurgen. #USMNT

We all know Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando is pretty heavy into music. It’s a big part of his life – he’s always at shows in the Salt Lake area, and he even picks out the pregame mix that gets played during warm-ups at every home game at Rio Tinto Stadium.

Nick had a pretty big foray into the music scene on Wednesday, with his #USAvMEX Locker Room Playlist popping up on the front page of Spotify, the popular music streaming service.

SANDY, Utah – It was announced yesterday that three RSL-Arizona Academy players, DF Justen Glad, GK Christian Herrera and MF Sebastian Saucedo, have been named to the U.S. Under-18 Men’s National Team roster for a 10-day training camp. The training camp will be held at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center in Carson, Calif., from April 4-13.

The U.S. will play two friendlies while in the 10-day camp, facing off against the Canada’s U-18 National Team on April 8 and then Mexico’s U-18 squad on April 12. This will be the first camp since the U.S. U-18 Men’s National Team participated in the Copa del Atlantico in the Canary Islands in February. Both Herrera and Saucedo were a part of the U.S. squad that competed in the international tournament.

Glad, Herrera and Saucedo have guided the RSL-Arizona U-16 Academy team to the top of the U-15/16 Western Conference with a 16-2-2 record, qualifying them for the Academy playoffs. The RSL-Arizona U-16 Academy team is reigning U.S. Soccer Developmental Academy U-16 champions.

After the April camp, the U-18s will next assemble in May for the Lisbon International Tournament in Lisbon, Portugal.

Real Salt Lake defender Nat Borchers appeared on MLSsoccer.com’s ExtraTime Radio on Monday, talking with Greg Lalas, Simon Borg and David Gass in a wonderful, wide-ranging interview.

Nat was at his best on the podcast, forthright, open and honest on a variety of topics, including RSL’s performance against Toronto FC, what makes Kyle Beckerman a great player, and the role of “bulletin board material” in the Claret-and-Cobalt locker room.

“I love it, I don’t even consider that trash talk, that’s just being honest,” Borchers said. “I think when you look at the rivalry we have with Kansas City, it always just seems like two different ideologies of soccer. You’ve got us on the one side, we want to play this passing game, we want to create goals in this beautiful way. And you look at Kansas City, they can create goals that way too, but they also want to go very direct, especially at home where they’re very organized and very disciplined. And when you talk about hate, I’ll say it myself, I hate probably every team in this league and I think that’s what makes me a competitor, so I don’t think that’s trash talking at all.”

Real Salt Lake will take on Sporting Kansas City in a MLS Cup 2013 rematch on Saturday, with the Claret-and-Cobalt traveling to Sporting Park to take on the Eastern Conference power at 6:30 p.m. MT on ABC 4.

Saturday’s contest is the marquee matchup in MLS this weekend – you have fun up there on national TV, Portland and Seattle – and both sides are already amped for it.

Kansas City, as they are wont to do, took a bit of a different approach to express their – um – excitement ahead of Saturday’s match. Here’s Sporting midfielder Benny Feilhaber, following Kansas City’s 3-2 win at Colorado on Saturday:

Benny Feilhaber on @RealSaltLake: "They pride themselves on being the most possession-oriented team, but I don't know if I buy into that."